Behind the Glass
by Leo-Arcana
Summary: For two and half years, New York City has been plagued by a psychotic cannibal who, for some reason, seemed to be impossible to catch. Now that his kills are getting closer to home, it's time for the 'assassins' to put an end to his rampage. -AU and character death-
1. Under the Knife

September 12th, 2011

"Please, Mama," Petruccio begged, "I just want to get the feathers before the wind blows them away."

"I said no, Petruccio. It's too late and dark out now, they will be there in the morning," Maria replied firmly, "Now please, go to bed."

Petruccio rolled over in his bed, pouting into his pillow as his mother turned off the light to his room and closed the door behind her. An eagle had been perched on tree just outside his window but was suddenly startled by something and flew away, leaving behind a few feathers that floated gently to the ground. If his cousin, Connor, was there, he would go get the feathers for him. He shared Petruccio's interest in collecting feathers. Ezio might get them for him as well, but as far as Petruccio knew, he was probably out at a party or some girl's house. Federico always sided with their parents, so he probably wouldn't.

Petruccio sat up and looked through his window at the feathers. They were feathers from an eagle, just sitting there, how could he resist? As quietly as he could, he slid his window open and carefully crawled out, using the thick vines of ivy clinging to the wall to steady himself. He glanced down at the window below his to see if anyone was in that room. Thankfully, the window was dark and there would be no one to see him. He made his way nervously down the ivy, wondering how Ezio could do this so often. Once he reached the ground, he brushed off the little bits of plant stuck to his hands and sprinted over to the tree where the feathers awaited him.

Petruccio knelt down and picked them up gently by their shafts. He took a moment to admire the deep brown and white feathers before returning to his room. He stood and turned quickly, but his retreat was halted when it felt like he ran into a wall. He fell back onto his rear, dropping the feathers. His first thought was that it was Ezio, sneaking back from wherever he'd been. Until the person spoke.

"Not my first choice," a voice grumbled.

Petruccio stared up in shock at the man standing over him.

"But I'm feeling a little lazy tonight," the man added, taking a white cloth out of his pocket.

Petruccio scrambled back to get away and tried to scream, but the man grabbed him by the throat and smothered the cloth over his face before he could make any noise. Petruccio scratched at the man's hands for only a minute, if that, until the darkness of unconsciousness swallowed him.

xXxXx

"Using the front door tonight, eh?" Maria called from the sofa where her and Giovanni sat.

"I always use the front door," Ezio defended as he walked into the living room.

"Oh please, Ezio, do not think we don't know what you're up to," his mother laughed.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied, suppressing a grin, "Is Petruccio already asleep? I found some feathers outside he would like."

"He should be, I put him to bed about an hour ago," Maria answered.

Ezio made his way upstairs and lightly knocked on his younger brother's door. When he received no answer, he silently pushed the door open so as not to wake Petruccio if he was sleeping.

"Petruccio, are you awake?" Ezio called softly, poking his head into his brother's room.

He saw the window was open, but didn't think much of it. Their mother always insisted that Petruccio keep his window closed at night because she was afraid he might get sick, since he was not very healthy to begin with. But he would open the window anyway because of how stuffy his room would get. Ezio crossed the room over to his brother's bed and reached out to shake him awake. With his hand touching nothing but the mattress, Ezio now thought something suspicious of the open window. He set the feathers on the nightstand beside the bed and hurried back downstairs.

"You're sure you put him to bed?" Ezio asked quickly, "He's not at a friend's house or something?"

"Of course," Maria replied, worry beginning to work its way into her.

"Why do you ask?" Giovanni asked.

"He's not in his room," Ezio answered.

xXxXx

As he came back to a state of consciousness, Petruccio found himself spread eagle on a table, unable to move. He struggled against the restraints, but to no avail. He looked around the room in a panic; it was dimly lit and wreaked of the stench of gore. He glanced down at himself, restrained to a metal medical examination table. The restraints that held him were well-worn leather, but he him tightly nonetheless. The sleeve of his right arm had been literally ripped away, leaving a few threads sprawled over his shoulder. His arm itself had been drawn on. Dotted lines ran down the length of his arm and around his wrist, elbow, and shoulder. Just like the lines on a pig at a butcher shop. His heart hammered rapidly in his chest and a horrified scream ripped out of him.

"Please don't do that, it gives me a headache," the same voice from before spoke, "Then I can't focus."

Petruccio's head snapped to his left to see the man entering the room. The dim light in the room provided a better view of him than the clouded moonlight had. He wore a stained and battered lab coat over relatively casual street clothes, his hair slicked back, and had eyes that felt like they were piercing into him like knives.

"W-who are you?" Petruccio choked.

The man didn't reply as he walked around the examination table to the counter on the other side of the room. He opened a drawer and began to rummage through it; the metallic sounds of metal tools clinking together reaching Petruccio's ears.

"What-what're you gonna do?" he whimpered.

He continued to ignore the boy and set a few things onto the counter before closing the drawer. He picked up whatever it was that he'd been looking for and walked over to Petruccio's side. The man pulled a stool up to the table, sat down, and leaned forward to speak to Petruccio.

"Who I am isn't important. As for what I'm going to do…well, I think you're smart enough to figure it out," he said in quiet growl, nodding towards Petruccio's arm.

The man raised his hand to just above Petruccio's arm, a gleam from a small knife scaring Petruccio to his core. He screamed at the top of his lungs again, making the man flinch and pull the knife back. His scream was quickly muffled by a cloth being stuffed into his mouth.

"I thought I asked you not to do that," the man snarled.

He huffed and turned back to the boy's arm. The knife gleamed at him again before slicing into his soft skin. The sight of his own blood blooming from the incision was enough to make him pass out.

xXxXx

"Looks whose handiwork just came in," a man called, announcing his presence as he rolled in a metal cart that supported a covered body.

"Again?" the man's partner sighed, "Why can't they catch this guy? It's not like he's being very careful."

"Must be doing something right," the first man replied.

For the past two and half years, New York City had been plagued by a psychotic cannibal who, for some reason, seemed to be impossible to catch. Dr. Ragland had seen all of the killer's work and watched as it became more refined. His mind wandered back to the first victim, a woman in her mid-twenties. He was sick to his stomach when he saw what the killer had done to her. All the flesh had been viciously ripped away from her body, leaving her corpse an unidentifiable bloody, mushy mess. He wanted to believe a wild animal was responsible for the woman's death, but her autopsy revealed it was in fact a human who did that to her.

The two men pulled back the canvas sheet, revealing the body of a young boy. Or rather, what was left of his body. The muscles of his right arm had been cut away, leaving the crimson stained bones exposed. It looked like someone had begun to cut into his other arm, but quit halfway through. The morticians knew where the muscles were, as did everyone involved in the case. They remained with the killer and were mostly likely being eaten as they spoke.

"Doesn't look like he was picked clean like the others," the second man said.

Dr. Ragland picked up the file that had come with the body.

"Auditore, Petruccio. Age eleven," he said, "The boy was pretty sickly his whole life. Guess our cannibal friend figured that out and decided not to take that much."

"We'd better call the family and let them know we found their kid," his assistant said, "They started raising all kinds of hell at the police station last night."

Dr. Ragland set the file down and told the other man to get to work. He complained that there was no point, since the cause of death was quite clear. But Ragland reminded, as always, that they still had to try to find anything that could be used to tell who the killer was or at least where he was taking the victims before killing and ultimately cannibalizing them. They hadn't found a clue yet, but with every body, Ragland hoped there would be some little slip up that would give the killer away.

_**Author:**_** I know I should be working on my [prototype] fanfic, but this idea started plaguing my mind and I couldn't focus on it until I wrote this out. so I guess I'll be working on two stories at once now.**


	2. Distractions

September 15th, 2011

"Ezio, I'm sure the professors would understand if you didn't want to come to class for a while," Lucy said, "Why don't you go home?"

"I'll be fine, Lucy," Ezio mumbled as he sat down at their lunch table, followed by Connor.

"C'mon, even Altair spent a couple weeks at home when his dad…passed," Rebecca said, earning a grunt from the Syrian.

Altair took a few weeks off from classes after his father, Umar, had been killed by the same psychopath that killed Petruccio a few days ago. Although Umar's death had been far more gruesome because he was among the first dozen victims when the killer didn't know exactly what he was doing. Umar's funeral _had _to be a closed-casket funeral.

"I said I'll be alright," Ezio said, picking at his food.

"Fine, whatever you say," Rebecca sighed.

The group ate in silence for several minutes. Desmond took notice of the feathers now tied into Connor's hair, behind his ear; the eagle feathers Petruccio snuck out to retrieve. He also noticed the hollow look in the eyes of his normally outgoing Italian cousin and the sympathetic look that Altair gave him. Desmond sighed and pushed his food away from him, no longer feeling hungry. A somber silence settled over them until Shaun showed up.

"Rebecca, how the bloody hell did you get here before me?" he asked.

"Okay, first off, I've been here for like a half hour," she deadpanned, "And second, seriously? Ezio's brother just died and you want to know how I got here?"

"I already paid my respects, thank you. So yes, I do want to know how you got here because I just saw you not five minutes ago by the journalism building."

"I wasn't there, I don't even have a reason to be," Rebecca said, taking a bite out her sandwich.

"And that's part of the reason I was as— There you are, over there!" Shaun exclaimed, pointing to other side of the cafeteria.

All six of them turned to look at the girl Shaun was pointing at. She was well aware of their attention and stopped to stare back at them, trying to figure what she'd done. Figuring out it was a case of mistaken identity, Shaun quickly dropped his hand and took a seat. Rebecca turned to him with an unreadable expression.

"You really think she looks that much like me?" she asked flatly.

"Well, I did…" he shrugged.

"She must be new here, I've never seen her before," Ezio commented.

"I think you mean she must be new because you've never flirted with her before," Altair muttered.

Ezio opened his mouth to defend himself, but Altair was right. Ezio had flirted with just about every girl on campus. If he didn't, it was for only three reasons; one, she took night classes. Two, she was new. And three, she wasn't even remotely attractive. But this girl wasn't ugly or taking night classes.

"We stared too long," Connor said, "She's coming this way."

Shaun, Desmond, and Ezio looked up; the girl was walking their way, not looking very happy with their staring and what could've been misconstrued as gossiping. Rebecca leaned over to Shaun and whispered, "Whatever happens, it's your fault for pointing."

"Is there a reason you guys were pointing and talking about me?" the girl asked.

"Yes and no," Ezio replied, standing up with a smile, "It was not anything bad. But now that you're here, please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ezio."

"Um, I'm Dana," she said, "So if it wasn't anything bad, then what was it?"

"Shaun here thought I was you," Rebecca explained, "Oh, hey, you're in my computer science class, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Dana said slowly.

"If you'd like, you could have lunch with us," Ezio offered, giving her another flirtatious smile.

"Nah, I'm good," Dana replied, "My brother's waiting for me out in the courtyard…"

With that, Dana turned and left them. They watched her leave for a few seconds, though Connor watched her just a little longer. Ezio dropped back in his seat, scowling at his failed attempt at flirting.

xXxXx

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to at least sit on a bench," Dana sighed, sitting down on the shaded grass under a tree beside her brother.

Alex grunted in response, staring ahead of them. He never thought he'd go back to Colombia University after receiving an internship with GenTek. But after a few incidences involving Abstergo, both companies became completely secluded and let go all unnecessary personnel.

"Or maybe it would, since it's sunny outside and you're so pale," Dana added with a laugh.

Alex looked at her with unamused eyes.

"I know, I know, you probably would get a sun burn…and a bad one at that. Why don't you take your coat off? It's kinda warm out here."

"I'd rather not," he mumbled.

"At least your hood?"

"No."

Dana frowned at him for a second then reached up to remove his hood for him. He flinched and swatted her hand away, glaring at her. Dana smiled innocently. He sighed and returned to staring at a random spot across the courtyard. Dana set her lunch to the side, to keep it safe, and made another grab for his hood. Catching him off guard, Dana managed to a hold of it and pull it down, exposing his dark, messy, curly hair.

"H-Hey!" Alex snarled.

He pushed Dana back and pulled his hood back over his head. Glaring more intensely at her than before. Ordinarily, it would've scared anyone speechless, but Dana was used to her older brother's hateful looks. She knew he was never really mad at her, only a little annoyed by her behavior. Dana rolled her eyes and picked her lunch up again.

"You want any?" she offered.

Alex shook his head.

"Course not. You eat about as much as an anorexic teenage girl," she teased.

He clenched his jaw but didn't say anything.

xXxXx

"So there's really nothing you want to do?" Warren asked, pacing across the room.

"Things are getting better, the media is losing their interest in him," Raymond reassured him, "In time, he'll be nothing more than an urban legend."

"Tell me again why we can't just have him executed or move him to a new location?"

"Our little experiment made it….more effort than it's worth," Raymond sighed, "And moving him would start the media up again."

Warren grumbled incoherently and stormed out of Raymond's office. Raymond picked the newest police file up off his desk and flipped through it. He frowned at the paper when he read that it had been a twelve year old boy killed this time. Raymond had hoped he would maintain enough morals to leave children alone. But this made it clear that his morals where declining again.

xXxXx

"You like her," Lucy whispered in a teasing tone.

"What?" Connor snapped, louder than intended.

"Do I need to repeat myself, Mr. Kenway?" Ms. Greene called from the front of the lecture hall.

"N-no, ma'am. I just, uh…can't…believe what you said…." Connor failed to recover.

Ms. Greene scowled at him before resuming her history lecture. Connor turned to Lucy and silently demanded an explanation. Lucy ripped a piece of paper from her notebook and scribbled something down on it before sliding it over to him.

_'You like her, I saw you starin' at her~!'_

Connor snatched up his pen and scratched out a response.

_'I was not staring at anyone. And a paper note? We aren't in high school anymore.'_

_ 'Are you sure? Cause you are staring at her an awful lot and you passed a note back.'_

_ 'I'm not staring and you can quit saying 'her', her name is Dana.'_

_ 'How'd you know I meant Dana and not someone else?'_

Connor didn't write anything back this time. Instead, he crumbled the paper up and stuff it in his back pack, then pretended like nothing happened.


	3. A Familiar Face

September 16th, 2011

Rebecca twirled her pencil boredly as she waited for her computer science class to begin. She looked around the room and saw Dana standing by the door talking to someone. Rebecca couldn't tell who it was because they hood was up and had his back turned to her. It looked like Dana might've been scolding him for something. Whoever she was talking to just shrugged off her reprimands and walked away. As Dana sighed and entered the room, Rebecca sat up in her seat and waved at her for her to come sit by her. Dana glanced over her should to make sure that Rebecca wasn't waving at someone else then hesitantly walked over and took the seat beside her.

"Scoldin' your boyfriend for something?" Rebecca asked.

"No, that was my brother," Dana laughed, "He'd probably kill any boyfriend I had."

"Must be pretty protective."

"A little too much at times…He's more concerned about my well-being than his."

"Wish I had a brother like that," Rebecca sighed, pulling out her phone and typing a text message.

"No, no you don't," Dana replied with a half-hearted laugh.

xXxXx

"…Do you feel like he's watching us?" Desmond whispered.

"Like he's trying to glare holes into the back of me skull," Ezio replied.

Both boys were finding it impossible to focus on what their mathematics professor was explaining because of who had taken a seat behind them. They'd thought he was a new student until the professor had welcomed him _back_ to the college. Alex Mercer. Desmond heard a few of his other professors mention him before; he was supposedly among the smartest students they'd ever taught. Desmond found that hard to believe, judging by his appearance.

As Alex had taken his seat, he'd given Desmond and Ezio a dirty look for no reason. Now they were sure he was watching them throughout the entire class, making them uncomfortable. The second their class was over, they gathered their things and hurried out of the classroom.

Desmond got to his history class early, as he always did, and watched while other students made their way into the lecture hall. He noted the professor, Ms. Greene, was late for once. When the door swung open again, he saw her talking with Alex. He looked around, hoping there would be other open seats beside the one next to him. Of course, there weren't.

"Why didn't I take the same class as Lucy and Connor…?" he sighed quietly, preparing for another uncomfortable class.

Alex sat down beside him without so much as a word or even a glance. He leaned his elbows on the desk, holding his head up with one hand, and went perfectly still. It should've been a relief for Desmond, to know Alex wasn't watching him, but he couldn't shake the paranoid feeling. Several minutes into the lecture, Desmond tried to distract himself by texting Lucy. A few messages went back and forth before a low grunt tore his attention from his phone. At first, he thought the professor had caught him, but then he realized it was too deep to be from Ms. Greene. Cautiously, he glanced to his left to see Alex glaring at him in annoyance from under his hood. It felt like his icy blue eyes were piercing into his soul.

Desmond swallowed thickly and slid the phone back into his pocket without taking his eyes off Alex. With the phone put away, Alex returned his attention to the lecture.

xXxXx

"Is Malik working through lunch again?" Lucy asked.

Altair nodded.

"You know, the whole reason we all made sure not have classes at noon was so we could all hang out together…." Lucy sighed, "Malik's screwing that up."

"That's what I told him," Altair shrugged.

Lucy rolled her eyes and picked at her food until Desmond showed up. Everyone at their table murmured some kind of lazy greeting as he sat down, glancing over his shoulder like he was making sure it was safe.

"What's the matter?" Ezio asked.

"That Mercer guy from our math class is in my history," Desmond answered, "He's scary as shit."

"Yeah, he's not much of a social person," someone said behind him.

Desmond nearly jumped out of his seat. He turned around to see the girl from yesterday standing with Rebecca, who laughed at his frightened expression. The two girls sat on the opposite side of the table, next to Connor and Altair, who seemed like he was trying to remember who Alex was.

"I'm pretty sure that's her brother you were talking about," Rebecca laughed.

"Is he the one with the dark leather jacket and wears like three layers?" Altair asked.

"Yeah, that's him," Dana nodded.

"…Why?"

"It's kinda hard to explain…I still don't get it, but I stopped questioning it a long time ago."

Altair shrugged, he didn't care that much, he was just curious why someone would wear so many layers when it was still warm outside. The group of them began talking about random everyday things, all the while Lucy caught Connor everytime he glanced at Dana. Lucy grinned knowingly at him and decided she would try to set them up, with Rebecca's help of course.

"What the hell is this?" Malik barked, "Altair gives me a hard time about never showing up to lunch, and when I do, I find that my seat has been given away?"

"I can move…" Dana offered.

"Please."

"No, it's alright," Connor said quickly, "If Malik wants to sit somewhere, he can show up on time."

Malik stared at Connor as if he'd just slapped him. He huffed angrily, dragged a chair up from another table and sat at the end of theirs with his arms crossed. Desmond then noticed Alex walking into the cafeteria. He kept to the sides of the massive room as he scanned through all the people, looking for someone; almost like a predator looking for prey. Ezio saw him as well as his eyes locked onto their table and began making his way over. Both Desmond and Ezio tensed slightly, being the only two who had really been near Alex. He walked straight up to Dana, without so much as a glance at the others, and held a cell phone out to her.

"You dropped it outside your computer class," he mumbled.

"Oh, I didn't even notice," she said, taking the phone from him, "Thanks."

He didn't reply; his cold eyes swept over the group suspiciously before he turned and left.

"…Well he seems pleasant," Malik stated.

xXxXx

"Wha….ugh, what happened…?" William groaned as his eyes adjusted to the dark room.

"Hm, I guess I should start using a more potent form of chloroform. People have been waking up sooner than I'd like."

"T-that voice…!"

William attempted to sit up but was held down to the examination table by its restraints. He lifted his head as best as he could and looked around until he spotted a man at the counter with his back to him, examining a scalpel. Appearing satisfied with it, the man turned and started walking towards him.

"Dear god, it's true…" William breathed, "You really are the one going around killing and eating people…!"

He ignored William, setting the scalpel down on a metal tray and taking hold of William's sleeve. In a single swift motion, he ripped the fabric away and tossed it over his shoulder. Then he picked up a marker from the tray and started drawing lines over his arm. He always liked to start there. The arms weren't as soft as the abdomen, but they also weren't as tough as the legs.

"You don't have to do this," William said quickly, "GenTek…GenTek is working on a cure, you don't have to keep doing this…!"

"I'm through with GenTek and its experiments," the man growled, "Besides, even if they did come up with a cure for that _fantastic _virus, that's not the only thing wrong with me now."

"If you're through with them, then why do you still wear the lab coat you had when you worked there?" William asked.

The man set the marker down and looked at William with a blank expression. He hadn't given it any thought. He took a half step back, trying to come up with a reason. While he thought about it, William was trying to come up with a way to reason with him. He hoped that he could talk the man out his satanic acts.

"I suppose…" he said, "It's because I want people to know that GenTek is the one who's really responsible for their deaths. I would've never considered human flesh had it not been for them."

He shrugged and picked the marker up again to finish his lines on William's arm. William bit his lip, trying to stay calm; he still had time. He watched the man dot lines over his shoulder and noticed he'd begun to shake. At first, he thought maybe the man was getting nervous or feeling regretful. But the hints of a smile told him otherwise. The man slammed the marker onto the table, cursing under his breath and covering his face with his other hand. William could see the deranged grin through the man's fingers as he began to laugh quietly.

"W-what's so funny…?" William whispered.

"_Nothing_!" the man barked, keeping his face covered.

His shaking worsened and his laughter sounded completely unhinged as it became louder. If William lived through this, the sight and sound would haunt him and give him nightmares for the rest of his life. The man cursed again and whipped around back to the counter where he'd retrieved the scalpel, he was quickly losing his patience. William noticed the man's walk was broken; halting as he moved. That was the last thing he needed to know.

"That's what you meant…" William said.

He grabbed something out of the drawer, straightened up, and staggered back over to William. William glanced down to see what he was holding, but the man raised it above and behind his head before William got a chance to see exactly what it was. He tilted his head, still wearing that mad smile. Metal flashed in the dim light as he swung his arm down and drove a cleaver straight through William's shoulder.

o0o0o0o

_**Author:**_** no, not William Miles. WoI target William Weber, just fyi.**


	4. Counteract

September 18th, 2011

A short series of beeps broke the silence in the morgue. Dr. Ragland set his scalpel to the side, removed his slightly bloodied gloves, and unclipped a pager from his belt. His assistant, Jackson, looked up from the corpse they had been examining.

"You still carry one of those things?" Jackson laughed.

"A lot of doctors do," Ragland replied, reading the name displayed on the small screen, "Well, I believe you can finish this, can't you?"

"Um, yeah. Some kind of emergency?"

"Sort of, yes," Ragland answered.

Without any further explanation, he turned and exited the morgue. Ragland walked down the empty halls of the hospital's lower levels to his office. Through the window on the door, he could see the partial figure of the man waiting for him. He sighed and pushed the door open; he didn't exactly like dealing with the man.

The man's attention snapped up to Ragland for a second then back to his desk where a small back pack sat. He sat in the chair, trembling and covering his mouth with his hand. Ragland knew behind the man's hand was another one his frightening psychotic grins. Ragland closed the door behind him and quickly crossed the room to the otherside of the desk. He felt safer having the large piece of furniture between the two of them, just in case.

"I didn't think you'd be back so soon," Ragland said.

"It was a…little worse than normal last night," the man shrugged stiffly, trying to keep his voice even.

"How much worse?" Ragland asked cautiously, "…Don't tell me you took all those drugs last night…"

The man shrugged again, biting his lip anxiously and averting his gaze away from the doctor.

"You should be either comatose or dead right now then," Ragland whispered, "But I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

Ragland unzipped the back pack that had been waiting on the desk and removed the empty pill bottles it held inside and set them on the desk. He then opened a locked drawer in the desk, revealing several zip-lock bags of various drugs he had snuck out of their pharmacy department for this man. All of them were a much higher potency than when he'd first starting 'treating' the man. As he went through the bags of pain killers and sedatives, filling each bottle with whatever was written on them. For a moment, he wondered how many drugs he'd given this man. Probably enough to kill a few elephants at the rate he was taking them. Ragland glanced back at the man; he would look like a normal guy in his late twenties, if he weren't sitting there shaking and grinning like a madman.

If he wasn't the one responsible for all the cannibalized corpses he'd had to autopsy for the past couple years. Ragland had considered, on many occasions, calling the police and telling them he knew the one responsible for the horrendous acts. But something in the back of his mind always told him that no matter what safety the police could promise him, he would never be safe from this man; that it was better to just help him. He was sick and more than likely dying anyway.

Ragland shut and locked the drawer then stuffed the refilled bottles back into the back pack. The man wordlessly took the back pack and exited the office. Watching how stiffly the man moved, he almost pitied him.

Almost.

xXxXx

Desmond really didn't want to do this. He did care for his aunt and their family, and he did feel sorry for them about what happened to Petruccio. From what Ezio had told him, their house had become so solemn and depressed, that it felt like it just sucked the life right out of a person. Still, Desmond's father had told him to deliver the bouquet of flowers to them with his condolences, since he was out of town and couldn't make it back.

He thought about leaving the flowers on the porch and letting whoever find them when they left the house, but that was probably inconsiderate. Desmond rang the bell of the house and a few seconds later, Ezio opened the door. He could probably give the flowers to Ezio to give to his parents and leave.

"Desmond? What're you doing here?" Ezio asked, immediately replacing his downcast expression with a false, more upbeat one.

"My dad wanted to give these to Maria," Desmond replied.

"I'm sure she'll love them," Ezio smiled.

He stepped aside to let Desmond in. Now he would have to give the flowers to Maria personally. Ezio led him upstairs to his parents' room where Claudia sat on the edge of the bed, trying to comfort Maria who was lying on it lifelessly. Ezio knocked gently on the door to get her attention, she nodded and quietly left the room.

"Madre, Desmond è qui," Ezio said softly, sitting where his sister had been, "Lui ti ha portato dei fiori."

Maria scarcely moved, only glancing up at her now youngest son. He motioned for Desmond to come over. With some coaxing and help from Ezio, Maria sat up as Desmond stood in front of her. She gazed up at him with hollow eyes and made an attempt to at least smile a little.

"Um…these are from my father. H-he said he's sorry he couldn't make it to the funeral," Desmond managed to say.

"Grazie, nipote," Maria whispered.

She inhaled the scent of the flowers and smiled more genuinely. After a second or two, Desmond awkwardly excused himself from the room. Claudia returned as he left and sat on the opposite side of her as Ezio did. Exiting the house, he glanced back at it, feeling a bit guilty he didn't stay to comfort his aunt. But he didn't think there was anything he could do anyway.

Then it felt like he ran into a brick wall. Desmond stumbled back and unceremoniously fell on the ground. He groaned and pushed himself, intent on giving whoever he ran into a piece of his mind. Until he saw that he'd run into Alex. Any anger he felt quickly disappeared under Alex's icy glare. Desmond mumbled out an apology to him and stepped aside. Alex snorted in annoyance at him, readjusted his back pack and moved past him.

xXxXx

"Dana," Alex called.

He didn't bother waiting for a response. Dana had made a rule a few years ago that Alex wasn't allowed to walk into the house unannounced. Even though it was _his_ house. Dana hated the way he snuck in and silently skulked around until he appeared beside her without warning.

Alex walked to the kitchen and saw note waiting for him on the counter.

_Alex-_

_ I went to the library to do some research for a history paper, be back later_

_ -Dana_

He wondered why she still had to put their names on her notes, it wasn't like anyone else lived there or even visited. Alex sighed and went to his room where he dropped his back pack on the floor next to a nightstand. He pulled opened the nightstand's drawer, unzipped the back pack, and removed the little yellowish bottles. He dropped them into the drawer, one by one, until the back pack was empty again. Alex closed the drawer and stared at it for moment before deciding to go back to the living room and lay down the couch while he waited for Dana to get back.

o0o0o0o

_**Author:**_** trying to get more Desmond in the story since I did put him as one of the main characters in the summary thing…and also because it was requested…**

_Madre, Desmond è qui. Lui ti ha portato dei fiori_. "Mother, Desmond is here. He brought you some flowers."

_Grazie, nipote._ "Thank you, nephew."


	5. Past and Present

October 3rd, 2011

Malik hadn't met Alex other than the brief encounter when he returned Dana's cell phone to her. But he didn't want to get to know him anyway. There was something about Alex that Malik didn't like. Altair, Ezio, and Connor all agreed on that.

"So what's your brother's problem?" Malik asked as he sat down.

"Alex?"

"Unless you have another brother who looks just like him, yes."

Dana scowled at Malik; he always came across as uptight and a little bitter to her. Altair, as well as everyone else at their table waited for her answer. They all wanted to know why Alex seemed so angry at them even though they'd never done anything to set him off. Dana sighed and decided she might as well tell them.

"You guys know that company GenTek that got bought out a couple years ago by Abstergo?" she asked.

Most of them did, except for Desmond, but he acted like he knew who they were. He guessed he'd be able to figure out from what Dana was going to say.

"Well, Alex was majoring in genetic sciences and got an internship at GenTek about a year after he started the major. It was a lot of work, but I think he liked it. He was always so busy that I hardly ever got to see him. But after a while, Abstergo bought them out and cancelled the internship program, so Alex was pretty pissed because it was a paid-internship and it paid pretty well. After the last night of the program, his girlfriend at the time decided to take him out for dinner to make him feel better—"

"Someone actually went out with him?" Shaun laughed.

"He wasn't always like this," Dana bit, "But yeah, anyways, on their way back they got in a really bad car accident. Like, Alex still hurts from it years later kind of bad. And on top of it being such a wreck, they were also in the wrong place at the wrong time…because his girlfriend ended up being the first one killed by that pyscho cannibal…"

"Oh my god," Lucy breathed, "Karen Parker was her name right? If Alex was there, why didn't the killer take him too?"

"I think he did try, but Alex was pinned down by the other car. It took the paramedics almost an hour to get him out and when they did…he was pronounced dead on the scene…" Dana said quietly.

"Why didn't we hear about this on the news?" Desmond asked.

"It was in the news, but Karen's death was a bigger deal. And the paramedics were able to revive Alex…I mean, that's pretty obvious since you guys see him, but he's just not the same anymore. It's taken him this long to come back and finish his doctorates."

"Dana, I'm so sorry…" Connor said.

"Don't be, it's not your fault. Just do me a favor and don't let Alex know I told you guys this? He really hates it when people try to act all understanding and comforting towards him."

xXxXx

"Here."

The man carelessly dropped a bag beside a woman who sat on the counter with her legs crossed. She picked up the tightly sealed bag and opened it; the scent of early decay drifted up to greet her. She inhaled the scent deeply before daintily reaching into the bag and removing a somewhat small slab of crimson stained meat. She held it up in the dim light, turning it around and examining it for any signs of rotting.

"You always take extra care to preserve it, don't you?" she smiled.

The woman returned the slab to the bag and resealed it.

"I don't need you flipping a shit again."

"If you don't want to help me, then don't. I _can_ still do this," she frowned, "I am, after all, much more experienced than you are."

"And that's why you had to flee Hope, right?" he replied smoothly, "Because you were just _so_ skilled at evading arrest?"

"I'm not in prison now, am I?"

"Neither am I."

"You will be if you keep this up pace," she warned.

A low laugh escaped the man's lips. The woman looked at him curiously for moment before understanding. She smiled, hopping off the counter and taking the bag under her arm. As she strode past him, she paused and looked up at him.

"I wonder how long you can keep this pace up," she teased.

He snarled angrily at her, causing her to flinch and skip away from him. She scowled at him and left him alone in the empty room. When she was gone, he cursed himself for not bringing any form of medications to control his symptoms. He hated to admit that he'd begun to show signs, but lately there'd been no denying it. He was just relieved that it didn't act up as badly during the day. He knew it would give him away in a heartbeat.

But that made what William had said seem all the more appealing. The man slumped into a nearby chair, deciding to wait for the oncoming pain to subside. If there was the possibility of a cure, he'd take it. If he was so bent on hunting and consuming people, he may as well start targeting specific people. Anyone who might have more information on this cure William mentioned. He just wanted to be rid of the disease that terrorized his body. He was sure he'd continue his inhumane hunting, however. Old habits die hard, after all.

o0o0o0o

_**Author: **_**ehrmahgerd, so much dialogue and so long since I updated….apologies…I'm just not used thinking of AUs, let alone crossovers.**


	6. In the Shadows

October 7th, 2011

"Is he alright?" Lucy asked quietly, as she followed Dana into the house.

Alex layed motionless on the couch, practically comatose from medication.

"He's fine," Dana replied.

She'd come home to find him like this on several occasions, and he was always either in his room or on the couch, if he'd been waiting for her.

"Are you sure…?" Connor asked.

"Yeah."

Dana didn't bother acknowledging Alex as she walked passed him, leading Lucy and Connor to the kitchen where they could actually sit down. Their history professor had assigned a project that could either be done individually or with a small group; the latter had been strongly advised because of the size of the project. They had agreed to work on the assignment at Dana's house because there would be less distractions, if there were any at all, and because she lived in an actual house. Not a dorm or apartment.

After a few minutes of talking, they'd come up with too many ideas to remember. Dana went to retrieve her laptop from the coffee table in front of the couch. Failing to get a good grip on it as she picked it up, it slipped from her hands and struck the glass top of the table with a loud crack.

"You okay?" Connor asked, swiftly crossing the room over to her.

"Yeah, it just slipped," Dana sighed, "Can't say the same for the table though…"

A handful of cracks streaked across the glass from the where the laptop had made contact. Dana wondered how upset her brother would be when he found and, as if on cue, she heard an irritated grumble behind her. Dana cursed her luck under her breath, looking over her shoulder to see Alex sleepily glaring up at her.

"It was an accident," she offered.

Alex grumbled something inaudible before stiffly shifting to turn his back on them and pulling his hood further down.

"Why doesn't he go lay down on a bed or something?" Connor whispered.

"I don't know, he sleeps wherever he feels like," Dana shrugged, "It is his house…"

xXxXx

Altair turned up the volume on the TV in an attempt to drown out the sound of Malik arguing on the phone with his parents. He'd done his best to ignore, but with Malik pacing around the room, it made it a little difficult. Altair grumbled in annoyance and turned the volume up again. Malik snatched the remote out his hands and hit the mute button.

"What the hell!" Altair growled.

"I'm on the phone," Malik snapped.

"I can see that," he replied irritably, "Go in another room."

"Why don't you go in another room if it bothers you so much?"

"I can't take the TV with me."

"Well, then you'll just—"

Malik stopped, apologizing to his father in Arabic and giving Altair a dirty look. He quickly resolved whatever his father had been upset about and shortly thereafter hung up the phone. Altair took the remote back and unmuted the TV.

"You're not going to ask what that was about?" Malik questioned.

"I do speak Arabic too," Altair grumbled, "Plus, I don't care."

"Kadar is going to be staying with us."

"…Why?"

"My parents would like him to spend this semester in America."

"And they waited until October to decide this?"

Malik nodded. Altair sat back in his seat, thinking. He liked Kadar just fine, the boy adored him to no end. But after a while, he found it started getting a little annoying. Altair hoped that after the years he and Malik had spent in America, that Kadar would've outgrown this affection. Malik could tell what Altair was thinking and said, "I talked to Kadar on the phone as well."

"Yeah?"

"He can't wait to see you."

"You're making crap up," Altair narrowed his eyes at Malik's spiteful grin.

xXxXx

"You're not worried?" Rustle asked as he crossed the empty lab.

"Why should I be?" Shane replied.

He didn't bother looking up at Rustle as he came to a stop next to him. He simply continued writing notes and observations of what he saw beneath a microscope. Rustle knew what it was, another petri dish containing an old sample of BlackLight that had a sample of WhiteLight introduced to it. Rustle glanced over Shane's shoulder to read the notes, but the man's handwriting was too messy to read anything significant.

"Well, don't you know why you're the new head of the WhiteLight project?" he asked.

"Because William...is unfortunately no longer with us."

"Did they tell you how?"

"He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's not like he was targeted specifically, we both know that's not how he works. It was nothing more than coincidence, Rustle."

"You say that now," Rustle sighed, "But if William said something about WhiteLight?"

Shane stopped for a moment, setting his pen down and starring at his notes absently while he thought. He hadn't considered that possibility when he accepted the promotion. Shane was still convinced that it was just coincidence, but still, Rustle had a point.

"I knew him," Rustle said after a minute of silence, "If something catches his interest, he's going to look into it. And with how he is now, I'd be worried if I were you."

With that, Rustle turned and left him in the laboratory. Shane shook his head to clear his thoughts and went back to studying the reaction of the virus to the anti-virus. The two samples melded together but eventually, BlackLight overcame WhiteLight. Shane sat back in his chair with a sigh, telling himself that Rustle was just trying to spook him. He would just have to take extra care whenever he went anywhere at night. Of course, that's probably what a number of people thought before they became unfortunate victims.

Shane removed the petri dish from under the microscope, resealed it tightly and gave it a new label, indicating it had been experimented on. He put the dish away and quickly gathered up his research and notes, suddenly no longer willing to work as late as normal.

Before actually leaving the building, he poked his out of the door and looked around. The GenTek building was surrounded by walls that made checking the streets impossible. But he didn't need to check the streets, just the parking lot that was also enclosed by those walls. There wasn't really anything that anyone could hide behind except for maybe the few remaining cars of the night crew cleaning up the building.

Shane took a deep breath, reminding himself that he was being ridiculous. It was only coincidence that William was killed. He walked out to his car with a quickened pace, but otherwise appearing perfectly calm. As he approached his car, he remembered something he'd seen on the news years ago, before he lived in New York. The story of a psychopath that would hide under cars at night in a mall parking lot and wait for the car's driver. When the driver stepped up to the car, he would lash out his arms and slice their ankles with razor blades.

Shane stopped a few feet from his car, well out of arm's reach, and quickly checked beneath it. Nothing. He breathed a sigh of relief and got in, starting his car and leaving immediately.

All the while, on top of the walls that surrounded the building, standing in the shadows between light posts, he had been watched with amusement by the man he was hoping to avoid.

o0o0o0o0o

_**Author:**_** that little story about the guy who hid under cars is actually true. it happened at a mall not too far from my house a while back.**


	7. Cognizance

October 21st, 2011

Raymond sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he dropped the files he'd been reading on his desk. Two more people from the WhiteLight project team had been killed; Jared Cooper and Shane Ivey, the recently appointed head of the project. The quickened pace of the killings and the fact that the last three were working on cure made it clear to Raymond that a certain someone wanted to know about WhiteLight. He sat back in his seat, debating over something in his mind, then made a decision. He picked up the phone on his desk a dialed a number he hated to call.

The other line picked up, though there was no answer; there never was.

"We need to talk…_now_," Raymond stated.

"I'm a little busy at the moment," came a harsh whisper.

"I'm sure you can stop whatever you're pretending to do."

"…The same place as usually…?" the other voice sighed.

"Twenty minutes," Raymond confirmed.

Without another word, the other line hung up. Raymond did the same and left his office, letting a few people know he was going to lunch early.

xXxXx

"Where are you going?"

"A certain someone wants to talk again."

"I told you you're getting too aggressive."

"Forgive me if I don't want someone creating a virus to kill me."

The young woman scowled and rolled her eyes. He knew she wanted to point out the slight irony in his statement, but she held her tongue. He removed the stained the white lab coat, tossing it onto a chair to be washed later, and pulled on his usually sweater and heavy jacket, tugging the hood up over his head. The fewer people who could see his face, the better.

As he walked for the door, the young woman asked, "Will you be alright long enough?"

"I'll be fine," he growled.

His 'episodes' were starting to get worse and more frequent; becoming more of a risk. He just told himself it was because of his hunger. He thought that if he consumed more, the episodes would subside. Neither this woman nor the one who shared his appetite believed this. Still, he would not acknowledge it as a problem.

"By the way," he said, pausing at the door, "I think someone's snooping around GenTek's files. Find out for me, will you?"

"Sure," she sighed.

xXxXx

"Kadar, quit running off," Malik snapped.

"Maybe you should keep up," his brother teased.

Malik had been showing Kadar around the city with Altair. Or at least, he was trying to show him around. Kadar had a habit of running ahead and going into every store he saw, which made it difficult for Malik to keep track of him. Altair made it no easier; either he wasn't paying attention to where Kadar went or he was intentionally not telling him. Both reasons seemed likely.

Malik was relieved that Kadar wouldn't be going to the university; he was still in high school. At least he wouldn't have to keep an eye on him at all times, but that was also what worried him. If Kadar's curiosity continued to get the better of him, he would probably end up half way across the city instead one of his classes.

One of the stores that Kadar went into was playing the news on a television in the corner of the ceiling. Unsurprisingly, the news anchors were talking about the two latest victims of a certain psychopath. Kadar stopped and watched long enough for Malik and Altair to catch up to him, and when they did, he asked if they knew anything about it. Malik tried to dismiss the topic and drag him out, but Altair saw it as a chance to frighten him.

"There's a cannibal running around New—," Altair started.

"What does 'cannibal' mean?"

Kadar spoke English very well, but he didn't know every word.

"Cannibal is a person who _eats_ other people," Altair replied in a low voice, "And no one can catch him. He kidnaps people in the middle of the night, cuts them up, eats them and leaves their bodies lying around the city."

"Knock it off," Malik barked, "If he has _any_ nightmares, he's sleeping in _your_ bed."

xXxXx

It didn't take Raymond long to get to the small lake in Central Park. But no matter how quickly he got there or how early he was, the other was always there first. Raymond grimaced and sat down beside him on the bench.

"Well?" the other man demanded.

"You tell me, you're the one acting up," Raymond replied.

"…"

"If you wanted to know about WhiteLight, you could've asked."

"You know me better than that."

"Of course, you'd rather take than ask. But let me remind you, I'm not covering up your tracks so you can turn around and bite me."

The man grinned faintly at the remark. Raymond rolled his eyes upon realizing what he'd said.

"I might just have to if WhiteLight keeps up," the man said, "Why are you so worried that you need to make a 'cure'…for the only two people in the world who are infected?"

"Surely you can't enjoy what you do."

"After two and half years, it doesn't really bother me anymore. As for the other—"

"Please, don't remind me about her."

"If you really want me to take it easy, I suggest you shut down WhiteLight as soon as you get back to GenTek."

The man stood up and walked away, leaving Raymond with no choice. He'd already tried to have him killed, but he had a strange if not downright horrifying way of coming back to life a few days later. Raymond had no idea how he could do it, he had very little knowledge of BlackLight because that team's leader reported only the bare minimum to him. And unfortunately, the rest of the BlackLight team was dead on his orders. That was a decision he regretted since he made it, not to mention it had been poorly executed.

The hired assassins had done a poor job cleaning up after themselves and Raymond also had only pathetic and suspicious answers as to why the team was disintegrating. That was how the team leader found out and decided to make a run for it. At the time, Raymond wasn't too worried about it; he was dead either way. Or at least that's what he thought. Maybe if he'd gone about things differently, he wouldn't be at this man's mercy.

But everyone has their breaking point.

At that moment, Raymond had his. Their agreement had been for Raymond to cover him so long as he kept his activities low and stayed out of any kind of attention. But this man had begun to take advantage of him and was terrorizing the city now. As far as Raymond was concerned, the man had broken that agreement. He considered outing the man to authorities, but thought that would result in his own arrest as well. Not mention his doubts about anyone's ability to subdue the man.

No, it would be better if he took care of this personally. He would make it look as though WhiteLight was shut down, but would continue it in the tightest of secrecy. Raymond knew the man had some sort of hacker working with him, but if only hard copies of papers were kept, there would be nothing to hack. It was old-fashion, but the best way to fool a hacker. That would allow the research to continue and then he would get a final version of WhiteLight.

And inject it into the man himself.

o0o0o0o

_**Author:**_** all that waiting for this tiny chapter, sorry. I was planning to have Connor in here, but decided to wait until the next chapter because I wanna try to keep his OOC-ness minimal now that his game is out.**


	8. Two Birds, One Stone

October 31st, 2011

"You want to ask me something, don't you?" he muttered.

"Of course."

"Then ask it," he snapped.

"Have you taken care of the two…'issues'?"

"I was just about to go do that."

"In the middle of the day?" she asked, genuinely surprised.

She leaned back against her desk and waited for an answer. If he really was planning to do this in the middle of the day, he was taking quite the risk.

"And what about you? Asking me, not only this time of day, but in such a public place?"

He had a point. But she chose now to ask because the noise of the people around them would conceal their conversation, not that what was said would give away his intentions. He had two targets to silence, although he considered letting her take care of the second one. It would be much easier for her to approach the second one than it would be for him. Plus, she was always criticizing his way of doing things so it would be a chance for her to prove whether or not she knew better.

As the last group of people began to make their way out of the room, he turned and took his leave. The woman sighed and moved around the desk to sit in the chair. She rested her elbow on the desk, propping her head up as she began to think about what to do. She was rather fond of the second target, which made it a little harder to think about killing her. Only a little. She knew it had to be done, but thought it would be somewhat sad to end the life of such a bright girl who made the mistake of sticking her nose into their business.

She spent the whole of her free time thinking about the best way to go about it, she'd been out of the game for too long to think of something as quickly as her partner. Just when she thought she might be onto something, the noise of approaching people began to fill the room again. She watched the people enter the room with annoyance, but none of them seemed to really care. They were used to seeing that look on her face. She was always bothered by something.

Once most of the people, the students, had taken their seats. She barked at them to quiet down so she could begin her lecture.

"Hey, does it seem like Ms. Greene is a little more pissed than normal?" Lucy whispered.

"Hm…I dunno," Dana replied, "To be honest, I don't really pay that much attention."

Dana always tried to focus on what Ms. Greene was teaching, but history had never been interesting for her. But as always, a distraction provided itself to her. Everytime she glanced out of the corner of her eye, she would catch Connor fidgeting nervously and immediately stop once he realized she caught him. Throughout the class, it seemed to get worse and Dana couldn't help but wonder what could make him so nervous. When Ms. Greene finished her lecture and dismissed the class, Dana opened her mouth to ask Connor what was wrong, but he spoke first.

"Dana, do you, um…have any plans tonight…?"

"No, why?"

It was a silly question, and she knew it, but she still couldn't stop herself from asking it.

"I was thinking that maybe…we could see a movie tonight or something?" he asked, then added quickly, "If you want to, I mean…"

Dana gave a short laugh and smiled at him, but didn't reply right away. To see Connor, a fairly big and strong guy, looking like a puppy scared out of its senses was priceless and adorable, to her at least. When his expression went from mild nervous to borderline pain, she gave him an answer.

"Yeah, I'd like that," she said.

xXxXx

He knew where his target was, finding him was the easy part. A downside to being part of well-known family, he supposed. The hard part was to get him alone and out the sight of any security cameras, which would be difficult considering his target worked in a bank. The man had scouted the bank from various vantage points atop low-rise buildings, but had kept himself hidden behind their historical, decorative eaves. Since he wouldn't be able to get the target while he was at work, he decided to wait until the man was leaving.

But of course, that would be a few hours still. With nothing to do atop the roofs, and not wanting to lose track of the target, he settled against the eave and tried to take a nap. Anxiousness and paranoia kept him awake and checking over the eave every few minutes. Clearly, he was not going to get any rest, so instead he went over dozens of scenarios in his head to make sure what he planned to do was going to go the way he wanted.

The sun set, allowing for night to descend over the city and the target still had not left the bank. The man cursed vehemently, but silently; he may as well have waited until now like he normally did. He waited a moment longer before finally seeing his target leaving the bank. With someone else. He was by no means opposed to killing bystanders. It just made things much more difficult and posed a greater risk of a slip up.

He snarled and rushed for the fire escape that he'd used to climb up there in the first place. He ran down the metal steps, making almost no sound at all, and dropped onto the concrete of the alley before sprinting to the corner of the building. He paused a moment to relocate the target and whoever it was accompanying them. As soon as he found them again, he started off after them. He kept his pace no more than a hurried walk; he didn't want to attract too much attention, but then again, he didn't want them to get away either. If they made it to the car, they were as good as gone.

All the scenarios he'd played over in head were now useless. He quickly came up with a new plan as he gained ground on them. Now only a few feet behind them, he removed a syringe from within his jacket and jabbed it into the target's neck. In the same moment it took for either of the two to realize what had happened, the younger man, the target, dropped to the ground. The other, older man stared in shock between the younger man on the ground and the one now reaching for him.

Fear finally set in and he turned to run, but got no more than three steps before a surprisingly strong arm grabbed onto the neck of his neck. He was jerked back violently, and tried to scream for help, but was silenced the moment his skull was smashed into the concrete.

The man flexed and rolled his wrist as he looked around for any witnesses. Thankfully, that part of his plan went as he wanted. Now he just had to figure out a way to drag two full grown men off the street and to the abandoned building he preferred in a timely matter and without arousing suspicion. Seeing no other viable option, he hefted the older man over his shoulder and picked up the younger man by his waist and carried him under his arm. His body was going to make him pay for this strain later, but he wasn't concerned with that now.

He glanced down at the concrete where the older man's skull had begun to bleed. It wasn't a lot, he figured it would barely be noticed. The older man's head was bleeding profusely, so it wouldn't leave a trail straight to where he was going. He shifted the weight of the two men once more before striding away from the scene.

xXxXx

"Desmond, please," Connor begged, "It's just for tonight."

"And how am I supposed to get home then?"

"You can ask Altair to take you home, he's here half the time anyway."

Desmond turned away from the bottles he'd been placing on the shelves and fixed Connor with an annoyed look. Connor had asked Desmond if he could borrow Desmond's motorcycle for the night, since he didn't have a car of his own. Not only that, but Desmond was pretty sure Connor didn't even have a license to begin with.

"Okay, let's say for a minute I do let you borrow my bike," Desmond said, "Do you know how to drive it?"

"It can't be that hard," Connor shrugged.

"Oh my god, Connor," Desmond groaned, burying his face in his hands.

"I think riding live animals with their own will is more dangerous than a machine that obeys you."

Desmond looked up at him.

"You're kidding, right? If you screw up riding an animal, you get a few broken bones. If you screw up driving, you'll probably die…along with whoever you hit."

Connor shrugged again, Desmond couldn't tell if it was out of disbelief or indifference. He leaned on the bar's counter, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Did you ask anyone else?" Desmond sighed.

"Yes."

"And?"

"…they said no."

Desmond dragged his hand over his face, everyone else had their reasons he was sure. He was also sure, if the situation were reversed, Connor would help him out with no questions asked. He thought about it a second longer before deciding to let Connor borrow his motorcycle. He could show him the basics of how to drive it in a few minutes, and as long as he didn't try anything to show off or drive fast, he would be fine.

xXxXx

The first sense of his to begin working was smell. The stench of death was absolutely overwhelming and nearly vomit inducing. Next came sound; the distant murmurings of two people talking and the sound of aged leather in distress. With his eyes now focusing, he found his body strapped down by the leather. He looked around the room, as best he could, with panic quickly filling every part of his body.

He saw the two people talking; a man wearing a long white lab coat, which had seen better days, stood in front of a sink washing something. Leaning beside him was a shorter woman with reddish colored hair. She noticed he was waking up first and elbowed the man in the side. He snapped at angrily and turned to glare at him. The man's angered expression lifted to a more sadistic one upon seeing he was awake.

The man dismissed the woman, who objected by asking if he was sure he wasn't 'too sick to do this'. He snapped at her again and threatened her with the knife he'd been cleaning. She held her hands up in a relaxed defensive manner then did as he'd told her to. Once she was out of sight, the man relaxed and walked over to the table, the scent of gore drifting along with him.

"Wh-what're you doing? What's going on?!" he panicked.

"It's always the same," the man sighed, "I'd hoped in all you're snooping around, we could've skipped those silly questions."

"Snooping around? What do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid with me," the man snarled, tightening a restraint over his stomach, "You know exactly what I mean…"

"N-no, I don't," he groaned, "I d-don't even know you!"

"Oh, really? Because I know you, Federico Auditore."

Federico stared at the man in horror.

"Do you want to know how I know you? Because you were looking into GenTek's files and you aren't very tech-savvy," he sneered, then loosened the stomach restraint a little, "Now, did that jog your memory?"

The man went back to the counter to retrieve something while Federico gasped for air. He came back to Federico's side with a scalpel and marker and stood beside the table he was strapped to. The man tore away Federico's shirt in a single motion, as if were no difficulty to do so. Then he uncapped the marker and began to dot lines across his arms and torso. Federico struggled against the restraints, but only succeeded in messing up the man's lines. He snarled and snatched up the scalpel, pressing it to Federico's throat in the same instant.

"Stop that," he hissed.

Federico froze.

"Your father struggled the same way. That ended messily for him," the man said coolly, "At least your brother was more cooperative."

"Y-you're the one who killed Petruccio?!"

"Who else did you think I was?"

"You killed my father too?!"

"Yes. You're family seems to have picked up some serious bad luck," he grinned, "Due in part to you, of course."

He resumed drawing his lines with a twisted grin. Federico was in too much shock to resist anymore. He knew he wouldn't be able to fight his way out. But then an idea began to form in his head, if he could buy some time or disrupt the man mentally, maybe he'd have a chance.

"Y-you were right…" he breathed.

The man paused and looked at him curiously.

"I-I was looking into GenTek's files," Federico admitted, "So, I know who you are."

The man's icy blue eyes flashed hatred at him, though his grin did not falter. In fact, a short laugh escaped him. He took a seat in the chair next to the table, covering his mouth to prevent further laughter while glaring at Federico. Federico felt his body go completely numb at the sight.

"Well, go on," the man encouraged, standing and leaning over him, "Who am I?"

"Y-you're Doctor M-mercer," Federico mumbled.

"And that tells me you know too much to get out of here alive. Not that you were going to anyway."

o0o0o0o

_**Author:**_** there, now that's a better sized chapter. anyone think this AU is getting better?**


	9. Author's Note

_**Author:**_** hey guys, I'm really sorry for this now almost 2 month hiatus. it wasn't planned or I would've said something about it. I've been trying to write chapter 31 since the last update, but I haven't been in the right frame of mind to do it. kinda lost my train of thought on this...even though i have the ending already planned out...**

**also, it's hard to focus on something that looks like a tiny rock compared to rising star. that star being the RoTG fic I started. it makes this one look very sad.**

**but I promise, I am working on coming up with something**


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